Sports/Estates fans, we’re in that
period during the year where playoff hockey and basketball overlap with the
beginning of the baseball season. A lot of questions come up for fans during
this time:

He’s making HOW much?

How can the team get out of that
guy’s contract?

What would happen if the Boston
Bruins spontaneously combusted in the middle of their playoff game?

For this week’s blog, I thought I
would cover a few interesting examples where the worlds of Estates, Trusts and
Sports meet.

The Raptor Trust

When doing research for this post, I was disappointed to
learn that The Raptor Trust has nothing to do
with basketball. The Trust’s purpose is to provide free care for
orphaned and injured birds. Might I suggest they start with the Atlanta Hawks
and New Orleans Pelicans? Go Raps!

Moneyball

In Major
League Baseball, contracts are fully guaranteed, even if a player suffers a
career-ending injury or passes away. When Yordano Ventura of the Kansas City
Royals died in a car crash in early 2017, he was still owed about $20 million
through the 2019 season.

Ventura is the first MLB player with a multi-year guaranteed contract to
have died before the deal expired. It looks like the lack of precedent has led
to a delay in payment to his estate. More than two years after his death, The Kansas City Star reported that the value of the
contract has yet to be paid to his beneficiaries.

It has
also been reported that Ventura’s contract included a provision that could void
payment for failure to perform because of injury or death from driving while
intoxicated. The toxicology reports from Ventura’s car crash were never
released. Sports teams have begun drafting contract terms that would make deals
non-guaranteed based on participation in dangerous activities

Serving a Greater Purpose

In the
hopes of advancing research on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a
degenerative brain disease associated with head injuries, many professional
athletes have announced their intention to donate their brains to science after
they pass away.

Despite
any public announcement made before death, even
if a professional athlete has expressed such an intention in his or her will,
ultimately the Executor has the final say with respect to donation. Much like
any other estate matter, deciding to donate your body to science requires
planning.

It’s crucial to let both your executor and family members
know about your wishes, because some programs will not accept donations if a
family member objects to the bequest of a loved one’s brain or body.

Hope
for Leafs Fans

Finally, did you know that the Stanley Cup is actually Trust Property? It has Trustees and Regulations on how it should be awarded. To my fellow Leafs fans, let’s avoid the annual disappointment and just seek out a Variation of Trust order instead.